The invention is in the field of article handling, particularly the pick-up of DIP components and insertion of the leads thereof into corresponding holes of a circuit board.
Presently, mounting of components which differ in a particular dimension such as body width requires a different tooling assembly for each size of component. Thus, operation of more than one tooling assembly at a time, or machine "down time" for a tooling change, is required in order to switch back and forth between components differing in width.
It is an object of this invention to provide for automatic changing back and forth between gripper fingers of a tooling assembly according to variations in a particular dimension of components, without interrupting the component handling process.
Further, it is an object of this invention to minimize the footprint of a tooling assembly which automatically selects and uses different sets of gripping fingers according to differences in a particular dimension from one component to the next.
Additionally, it is an object of the invention to provide a tooling assembly which grips DIP components with 0.300 inch and 0.600 inch CTC lead spacings by different pairs of gripping fingers, selectively and automatically, according to body widths of the components.
These and other objects will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention